Facebook is for Lovers

We kept getting tagged in those notes with 25 random things about people wanting to know 25 random things about us, so we wrote 25 random things about the EmptyBlogOfNothing. See Below.

Before we get to the 25 things, 1 other item. We've challenged our group members to increase our FB Fan Club memebership to 200 before the end of February. Are you up to it? Spread the gospel of EBONY.

1. The name "emptyblogofnothing" was chosen several months ago (Oct 2008)...Kyle registered to post a comment on his brother's radio show blog and thought he had to create a blog name to have an account. Thus EmptyBlogOfNothing was born, but not actually put to use with a purpose until late December '08. It's a happy accident, like penicillin or Jamie Lynn Spears' baby.
2. One goal is to get a mutual friend of ours thrown out of at least one bar.
3. As of 2/4/09, our youngest fan club member is 21, the oldest is 43
4. No matter what I came here to do. No matter what you came here to say. We really aint got nowhere to go.
5. Kyle is pretty convinced that someone will offer him a book deal by March.
6. The only gay bar Kyle has been to prior to EBONY is Roscoe's.
7. The only gay bar Rick has been to prior to EBONY is in Champaign, and he went there to watch Sox games.
8. Unofficial estimate of the percentage of bars on our list we've been to prior to attempting this...35%
9. So far in 2009 Kyle has also been to 6 bars in Chicago that are outside of our radius (Map Room, The High Dive, Gamekeepers, The Blue Line, Pint, and yes...Deja Vu)
10. We've had international web hits so far from Canada (Labatt's Brewery!), Ireland, France, Germany, Turkey, Indonesia, England, Japan and Brazil.
11. A handful of people have requested prior notification when we plan on hitting a few select bars so they can join us (Berlin, Wellington Tavern, Deja Vu, Las Fuentas).
12. I won't reveal who those people are (but if YOU have a request to tag along at a specific bar, let us know!).
13. The houseboats have been sold, the cars have all been towed, it hasn't been this bad since who knows when.
14. The only bartenders we know by name (aside from Laura at Trinity, who we met last month, and will probably never see again) work at Matilda.
15. The EmptyBlogOfNothing supports Charlie Wheelan in the race for the 5th Congressional District of IL.
16. So far in 2009 Rick has also been to 6 bars in Chicago that are outside of our radius (Park Grill, Wells on Wells, Monk's, Chili's, Sidebar, Manhattan's)
17. St. Patrick's Day will be spent at Alive One, as it has been for the last 2 years.
18. EBONY and The 907 are the official sponsors to Hall's 30th birthday bash in (whichever month it is)
19. The 907 is our former project, a sort of dj collective/underground art communal/excessive lifestyle project. Some would say it failed, some would say it peaked before it was named, we would simply say that it's in hibernation.
20. Can't you hear me? I'm beating on your wall! Can't you see me? I'm pounding on your door!
21. We worry about completing our list by July and having nothing to look forward to for the remainder of 2009.
22. Thankfully, and in case #21 actually happens, we've had 2 side project requests: 1) go to happy hour at every bar in the loop; 2) visit every brewery within 150 miles
23. Guest entries will be allowed at EBONY on rare occassions. Our standards are high, so they will be rigorously applied and only posted if approved by the EBONY Internet Verification Officer Reviewery (EBONY IVORY)
24. You forget what you meant when you read what you said, and you always knew you were tired, but then where are your friends tonight?
25. We'll have a party at the end of the year...we haven't yet determined the last bar we'll hit. This party will either be at the last bar, or at a bar we like after the last bar. Everyone is invited.

A free cookie goes out the first person to identify each song lyric with that of the corresponding band/group.
Edit from Kyle -- I changed the feed on this to feedburner, if you want to subscribe use the following address http://feeds2.feedburner.com/emptyblogofnothing

And if you say run, I'll run with you

The day began strangely -- we witnessed what almost escalated into a parking lot fight at the drive thru of the Chase across the street. An older man (maybe mid-60s?) was screaming at the top of his lungs at a similarly aged couple who had their dog with them. I quote, "I said I'm sorry!! WHY ARE YOU TREATING ME LIKE I'M A %&*$ING CRIMINAL!!!" This continued for 30-40 seconds. We couldn't really figure out what happened but eventually they must've figured out it was a beautiful snowy winter day in Chicago and they should enjoy it instead of spending time shouting at each other in a parking lot.

So we continued to The Union, a Big Ten sports bar. Walking in we were greeted by an empty room and a dog loudly barking at us. Of the 7 people in the bar we were the only paying customers and the only 2 who were not friends of the owner. I ordered a Blue Moon (without the orange, I don't need fruit in my beer), and was quickly reminded that I don't actually like Blue Moon. Jimmy Buffet's greatest hits album was playing on a loop. That I was able to detect this should signal that we spent too much time at The Union.

Heading south to the Irish Corner, (Halsted & Diversey, a title I've only bestowed upon that intersection just now as I type this) we stopped into Harrigans to meet some friends. This is your standard Irish bar, nothing spectacular about it. The bartender struggled with a coffee machine for several seconds (and actually called someone on the phone for assistance) before serving us a few glasses of strangely priced Three Floyd's Alpha King. There was no music playing, just the broadcast feed of the first NFL playoff game today. We were soon joined by Internet Celebrity Baumer, a sick-yet-still-visionary Holland, and the surprise arrival of Costello and Isler.

Needing food we hit another member bar of the Irish Corner, Trinity. Trinity has $3 Guinness...ALL THE TIME. We picked the right day and the right bar to hit up for food -- cheeseburgers were also on special for $3. These aren't the thin patty mini burger almost sliders they have on special at The Northpark Tap (extra $1 for cheese), these are real standard sized cheeseburgers that come with a large serving of waffle fries. I ate two of them.

Friend of the Blog Selfy eventually showed up, making his first of what will be many mentions in these pages. Laura, our bartender who looks a little like Alison Lohman (pictured), pretended to be interested in our conversations...conversations that included Isler's claim that he could walk across the United States in 2 weeks.

Heading south again we walked into a sparsely populated Victory Liquors. This is a Notre Dame bar that replaced former pool hall The Corner Pocket. Our reserved VIP area (it wasn't a reserved VIP area) featured one of those Boxer machines. Basically these things are an easy way to rid a group of competitive males of the singles in their wallets without employing poles, women or a bad dj. For the low low price of a dollar bill you get one punch on the speed bag, the power of your punch is displayed. Top to bottom, our rankings: Selfy, Costello, Kyle, Ricky, Isler, Internet Celebrity Baumer

A group of meatheads showed up and quickly put about $10 into the machine...one of them claiming he held the record on the machine at another bar. He never came close to the record on this one. Also, there's a video of Costello head-butting the boxing bag that'll be uploaded eventually (check the facebook page linked below). His score after the forehead impact was significantly lower than any of our punching results, leading to a discussion of the usefulness of the headbutt in combat (pro - suprise, useful in close quarters; con - headache).

The Grand Central is across the street from where we used to live. We used to hit up the All-You-Can-Eat brunch buffet here on the weekends after winter long runs, then they raised the price (presumably because 8 skinny runners would show up every weekend and each fill 5 plates worth of food...but probably not).

Rick and our waitress had the following exchange:
What's your name?
Yana
With a K or a J?
With a Y.

The GC is also the place that caused the end of a previous brief relationship for Selfy. The message she left him, in reference to a night spent at the GC, "It's your dancing. It's all over the place and it's not good."

So speaking of dancing, we're greeted with David Bowie upon our entrance to Chi-Town Tap. Based on the acquaintance that Internet Celebrity Baumer was trying to make it was apparent that the spoils of this bar crawl were affecting him far more than the rest of us. Whoever pumped some money into the jukebox gave us a surprisingly good run of tunes (Interpol, Radiohead, Kings of Leon, Ramones, Strokes). The tall glasses of Bass were on special here for $3. For reasons unknown, Isler remarks, "On a scale of 1 to 10, you guys are sweet!"

Rose Bar is possibly the best dive bar in Chicago (The Queen of Dive bars, maybe?). Really, there's little to no effort put forth here...it's a haphazard collection of mismatched furniture, glasses and patrons. If you order 3 of the same beer there's a good chance you'll get 3 different glasses. An older man drinking by himself broke into The Music Man's "Ya Got Trouble" when we walked in the door. Internet Celebrity Baumer showed up late, announced that "it smells like body odor in here" and we left.

Strangely enough, this was on the wall at Rose Bar, not Delilah's

For our last stop, Selfy, Rick, Internet Celebrity Baumer and I hit up one of our favorite places in Chicago (bar or otherwise), Delilah's. There's always an interesting crowd, a superb selection of drinks, great music (be it a themed night or just the jukebox), strange things playing on the televisions (old Batman episodes in this case), and the art on the walls is for sale and frequently changes (a selection of Elvis paintings tonight). I wish I had remembered to take a picture of their sign out front...oh well, I'll be back here again. The Batman episode must've been a good one -- top tier criminals The Joker, The Riddler, The Penguin and Catwoman were all featured. I don't know how often this happened in the series, but it must've been significant. Somehow I put $5 into the jukebox at 9:30 and my songs immediately began. This will probably never happen again.

Delilah's

Thanks to the idea of sick visionary Holland, we've put together a Facebook group that'll house more pictures, comments, etc. You can find it HERE